This country has developed a cosmopolitan attitude towards football. It is not confined purely to admiration of debonair continentals who create or score goals. Managers, too, have felt the benefit. When Sven-Goran Eriksson started work with England in 2001 there was some brooding, but the actual protest comprised little more than a bloke in a John Bull outfit holding a placard in front of the Football Association offices.

Most Italians or Germans, by contrast, would think it treason for a foreigner to be put in charge of the national team. There is a logic to the insistence in those continental heartlands of the game that managers, as much as players, should hold the appropriate passport. Principle, all the same, comes more readily to those who are successful. Italy and Germany have, in total, won seven World Cups and four European Championships.

In England it is all about 1966, still. The hesitation over appointing an outsider is fleeting if there is the merest hope that he will release the country from the thrall of those old memories. Sometimes faith is freely invested in people we do not know very well because we are less conscious of their faults and limitations. A foreigner, for a while, can pass as a redeemer.

Fabio Capello looks a wholly different character to Eriksson, but it will be hard for him to avoid going through the same process. Indeed, the Italian, with a mere five friendlies behind him, is already the target of the type of criticism from which the Swede was largely spared until his first World Cup, in 2002, was behind him. Each of them was initially seen as a transforming force.

They could be pictured as a corrective to all the wrongs that preceded them. Eriksson, filling a vacancy brought about by the emotional resignation of Kevin Keegan immediately after defeat by Germany, was extolled for his calmness. The newcomer's aim was to soothe and encourage. Arranging a golf outing for the squad was acclaimed as a shrewd scheme. The alleged divisions between Manchester United and Liverpool players were deemed over.

Capello arrived during a period when the demand was for the chastisement of footballers who had disgraced themselves by losing to Croatia. So there was satisfaction in the notion that the England hotel would henceforth be a boot camp. The mere utterance of the word "rules" sufficed to bring congratulations for Capello, although an emphasis on punctuality, a restriction on mobile phone use and the insistence that the players dine together were far from draconian.

Each of these coaches truly is a man of substance. It is drummed into us that Capello has won the league with every club he has ever managed and Eriksson has done the double in three different countries. Yet we forget that they are also fallible people who can flounder. Each was available to the FA because they were no longer wanted elsewhere.

Capello was sacked by Real Madrid 11 days after delivering the 2007 Liga title. "We need to find a more enthusiastic way of playing," said the club president, Ramon Calderón, wearily. Eriksson, for his part, was meant to take over with England in the summer of 2001, but Lazio handed him over in January because the doomed defence of the Serie A trophy had steeped the club in angst.

Dreams are too readily projected on overseas managers because they are, to some degree, unknown quantities. For a while, there is a craving to applaud all their works and Eriksson's decision to grant an international debut to the 31-year-old Charlton left-back Chris Powell was claimed as inspirational. By the same token, Capello was praised for cheering us up with the inclusion of the uncapped Fulham player Jimmy Bullard.

The two foreigners to manage England have quite a lot in common. While their temperaments vary, their outlook is similar. Wise as they may be about tactics, they are pragmatists. Eriksson's approach unquestionably had its successes, starting with the 5-1 rout of Germany in Munich. His single loss in qualifiers, against Northern Ireland, did no harm and there is no saying what might have happened had his players solved the mystery of the shoot-out. His career continues to be in reasonable shape and Mexico's comeback to beat Honduras 2-1 has put his new team straight to the top of Fifa's rankings in the Concacaf zone.

Having spent five years with England, the Swede's departure in 2006 was natural since, apart from all the furore about fake sheikhs, it was time for a new phase in his life and that of the England team. Capello, conversely, is prematurely harassed. It has been the worst of all worlds, until now, to deal in games that offer no reward for victory but bring scorn when they go wrong.

The distinction between Capello and Eriksson is slight. It was simply the Swede's luck to have David Beckham in his prime, Michael Owen often available and, latterly, an emerging Wayne Rooney who was a force of nature rather than the diligent pro we now see. Capello is about as well-equipped to manoeuvre England into the 2010 World Cup finals as a manager could be, but he is no magus. Neither was Eriksson.

The fantasy of the mysterious stranger who comes to redeem England is puerile. The country's football will only flourish when it embraces the responsibility of producing players and coaches of high aptitude in far greater numbers.